Katriona Drijber began her ceramic education at Kootenay School of the Arts where she completed a three year diploma program in studio ceramics. Following several years of studies at both the university of Calgary and the University of British Columbia in First Nations Studies, Drijber decided to return to studying ceramics at the Alberta College of Art and Design. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2014.
Drijber's work has been included in numerous exhibitions in Canada and the US; recent exhibitions include Cup: The Intimate Object X at the Charlie Cummings Gallery in Gainesville, Florida, The Yunomi Invitational at AKAR in Iowa City and Spoon Me! International Spoon Show in Medicine Hat, Alberta. She spent the summer of 2014 as an artist in residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana; and looks forward to her next residency – wherever that may be. Currently, Drijber makes her home in the small town of Coleman, Alberta, where she tries to balance time in the studio with time in the mountains outside her door.
Artist Statement
Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, I have always felt held in by their walls; through the medium of clay, I play with this sense of containment, creating spaces for people to enter into within the context of their daily lives. Working through function, I create spaces from which to draw sustenance in a literal way; this references the sustenance I draw metaphorically from the landscape which is so important a part of my identity.
In my practice, I blend the natural world outside the doors of the home with the friendships and relationships that grow and develop around the dinner table. I strive to create works that serve to blur the line between inside and outside, works that remind us of the plants and animals that also call this place home. I live for those fleeting moments when I am able to have an interaction with a wild animal out in its home territory, and in my best work I am able to translate these moments into a piece of pottery to be enjoyed in perpetuity by either myself or someone else. Utilizing the transformative power of clay, I create microcosms which the viewer or user can explore – portals of escape into a fantastical refuge from the everyday.